Easter Flowers: All are invited to donate funds for the purchase of flowers to decorate our sanctuary on Easter Sunday, March 31. After Easter, the flowers are delivered to our members and friends who are no longer able to come to worship services.
Easter Mission Gifts: Easter Mission gifts are invited from the congregation and community in support of the work of Burlington’s Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf and the Vermont Ibutwa Initiative. The missions of these two organizations have close ties with First Church and are important efforts to assist people in our wider Vermont community and in the South Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf is assisting hundreds of families and individuals monthly with needed groceries, hot meals, home delivery of groceries and an innovative career training program. The Food Shelf is a key social service program, providing needed food, helping low income people reserve needed resources for utilities and rent.
The Vermont Ibutwa Initiative, VIBI, an innovative, new non-profit, will be discussing their plans during our Lenten Education series, on March 14 at 6 pm. Please plan to come and hear about Cleophace Mukeba’s 2012 trip to Africa, learn about VIBI and enjoy dinner, including some Congolese foods. First Church members Cleophace Mukeba, Susan Saunders, Lucy Samara and Kristen Connors are on the Board of Directors of VIBI which has a dual mission: making health care available to women in rural villages in the South Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo who have been the victims of rape and, raise awareness in our region about life in the DRC and the realities of their current political and economic environment.
Honor someone with your Easter Flower &/or Mission Gift: Easter donations for flowers and/or the Mission Offering may be given “to honor” or “in memory of” someone special to you. Please make checks payable to “First Congregational Church” with “Easter Mission” and/or “Easter Flowers” in the memo line. Donations may also be made online through our secure e-giving system by clicking here. The names of Easter Flower and Mission donors – and those being memorialized or honored – will be listed in the Easter Sunday Order of Worship. Please use the 2013 Easter Flower &/or Easter Mission Offering Form. Thank you!